Original artwork, not a still
I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu).
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Few modest sentences have aged as sharply. "Just a hobby" and "won't be big and professional" now sit beside Linux running most of the world's servers, phones and supercomputers. Tech history likes the contrast, and people quote the line whenever they want to say that enormous projects can start as a side project posted to a mailing list.
Context reviewed
In context
May contain spoilersShow the scene
On 25 August 1991, Linus Torvalds posted to the comp.os.minix newsgroup that he was doing a free operating system, just a hobby, for 386 and 486 AT clones, and that it would not be big and professional like GNU. Wikiquote presents it as the launch of Linux. The thing he was describing became the Linux kernel. A later post from October 1991, announcing a first release, opens by asking whether readers pine for the days of Minix 1.1 when men wrote their own device drivers.
Sources (1)
- Wikiquote: Linus TorvaldsQuotes, 1991-94 sectionReference checked
Context reviewed
